What are the criteria for choosing a list of the sporting events we wish we'd been at? Well, the first has surely got to be the quality of the sport on show. It is all very well getting tickets for the Super Bowl, a heavyweight title bout or World Cup Final, but if the action fails to live up to the import of its setting then what advantage has been gained over those watching at home on television?

The factors taken into consideration in deciding this list - which can, by its very essence, be nothing less than subjective - include historical significance and how such performances or encounters defined what came before and after, the willingness of the protagonists to push themselves beyond the limits of what they previously believed possible and, last but not least, the buttock-clenching drama of the feats on show.

Sport has the ability to transcend, transform and inspire. It can also bind people together, however briefly, in a common purpose. But as any sports fan will tell you, the most important aspect for the lucky few that get to witness such exploits is the cache of being able to say you were there.